After a long break, we're back to happily talk about free operating systems. Open source matters more in the fast-changing world of technology, and Linux is making a big impact in cars, wearables and other devices. Those are places Windows will never reach.

We'll keep you updated on Linux and the latest open source tools on the market. Stay tuned.

In a way, his requirements are anti-open source, because his requirements make his speech events seem closed source. If I were to organize a speech for him, I'd perhaps violate half of the rules he sets.

So read on, the requirements more interesting as you read on. As eccentric as we would expect Stallman to be. Well, that's what makes Stallman, Stallman.

From what we're hearing, tablets with Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich (internally called ICS in Google), should come early next year. Some chatty executives have said in the past late 2011, but that won't happen.

Tablet makers may opt to sell their Android 3.x devices over November and December, and we'll see Ice Cream Sandwich rule at CES in early January. Devices will come out shortly after.

We're getting Linux 3.0. The kernel is not a revolutionary change, but we welcome the moniker change. It's apt for Linux's 20th birthday, and the older 2.6 naming scheme became complicated. It became like my second phone number.

It's hard to make revolutionary changes, especially when you have the open-source community making so many contributions. Just like a democratic political process, the changes are going to be incremental, but user driven. That's why free software is so good.

Red Hat's growing to be a $1 billion Linux company, according to an article on the Register. How does it plan to achieve that level of revenue?

Some techniques include a strong developer base working on the Red Hat Linux stack and a strong distribution channel (more than 6,000 resellers). Strong Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4,5,6 distros help. THe company is also making its way into virtualization and middleware to fill up the software stack from top to bottom.

After close to 30 years in hibernation, the Commodore 64 was relaunched with its retro design, this time with an Intel processor and the open source Ubuntu Linux.

The prices vary -- a barebones box is $295, minus the processor. A $895 version includes the works -- a 1TB hard drive, an Atom processor, Ubuntu Linux, an Nvidia graphics processor, 4GB of memory, a Blu-ray drive.

The reviews are in for the beta of Ubuntu 11.04, also called Natty Narwhal and the reactions are mixed.

Reviewers mainly had qualms with the brand new Unity interface, which Mark Shuttleworth earlier said would bring the OS a superlative, more interactive look. But reviewers miss the GNOME interface, saying Unity is not ready for prime time.

This is something they should've done a while ago. The intent was clean -- to push Ubuntu into the lives of millions of people, as Carr romanticizes. But the administrative cost was high, shipped CDs were few, and downloads topped CD shipments.